Clint Barton (Earth-199999)

Clint Barton, also known as Hawkeye, is an American hero, agent of S.H.I.E.L.D., and founding member of the Avengers, known for his impeccable skill with a bow and arsenal of specialty arrows. He has a longstanding, extremely close friendship with the Black Widow, Natasha Romanoff. He is married to Laura Barton, and is the father of Cooper, Lila, and Nathaniel. They live in a quiet safehouse in rural Missouri organized by Nick Fury.

Biography

Agent of S.H.I.E.L.D.

In May of 2010, Hawkeye was assigned to a small S.H.I.E.L.D. installation in New Mexico surrounding a mysterious hammer that had fallen from the sky and could not be moved. He leapt into action when a man—the hammer's owner, Thor—infiltrated the base and attacked a large number of S.H.I.E.L.D. guards. Hawkeye was ready to shoot, but Phil Coulson told him to hold off, curious what would happen when the man reached the hammer. Thor indeed got to the hammer, and pulled it, but was unable to hoist it from the dirt. Hawkeye stood down as Thor wept and guards took him away.

The Avengers

In 2012, Hawkeye was assigned to watch over experiments with the Tesseract in S.H.I.E.L.D.'s underground base, led by Nick Fury and Erik Selvig. Selvig was secretly being remotely influenced by Loki wielding the Mind Stone, and used the Tesseract to allow Loki passage into the base. Loki further used the Mind Stone, attached to a long scepter, to gain full control over Selvig and Hawkeye. The hypnotized Hawkeye shot Fury with a firearm, but the latter survived with a bulletproof vest. Loki and his new henchmen successfully escaped with the Tesseract and established a base of operations at an undisclosed location, recruiting various soldiers and scientists with a score to settle with S.H.I.E.L.D. Loki's intent was to use the Tesseract to open a large portal and allow the waiting Chitauri legion to invade through it. Selvig informed him that focusing the Tesseract's power in such a way would require a supply of iridium and a major power source.

Loki set his sights on scientist Heinrich Schäfer of Stuttgart, Germany, who possessed a sufficient amount of iridium protected by an optic sensor. Loki, dressed appropriately, attended a museum gala by night and publicly assaulted Schäfer, jamming a special scanner into his eye and killing him. He transmitted the image of Schäfer's eye to Hawkeye, who used it to access the iridium and successfully extracted it. As Selvig put the iridium to use, Loki was taken into custody by S.H.I.E.L.D. and their budding team of heroes that would come to be known as the Avengers: Iron Man, Captain America, Thor, Bruce Banner (also known as the Hulk), and Barton's old S.H.I.E.L.D. associate Natasha Romanoff, or Black Widow. Hawkeye led a legion of Loki's underlings into the Helicarrier where he was being held, and he was successfully freed. Hawkeye himself was confronted by Black Widow, who during a fistfight was able to jostle him out of Loki's mind control. Hawkeye was remorseful over his actions, but Widow assured him that he had nothing to be ashamed of.

Loki made his way to Stark Tower in the heart of Manhattan, where Selvig had commandeered the tower's massive energy supply to power a machine focusing the Tesseract's power. Hawkeye and his new Avengers comrades made their way to New York as the portal opened up and a Chitauri invasion force flooded through. Thor, Iron Man, and Hulk handled the larger threats with their macro-sized powers and technology, while Hawkeye, Widow, and Captain America primarily dealt with grunts on the ground and organized evacuation efforts. Widow eventually made her way to Stark Tower, learning that Loki's scepter was the key to disabling the portal device. Hulk also went to Stark Tower, smashing Loki himself repeatedly and effectively making him a non-entity for the rest of the battle. Elsewhere, the World Security Council decided to nuke Manhattan, seeing no other way to stop the Chitauri. After the missile was launched, Iron Man caught up to it, taking hold of it and carrying it into the portal to deep space. He threw the missile at the Chitauri mothership, causing a catastrophic explosion that in turned caused a massive feedback discharge, killing the Chitauri forces on Earth. Iron Man's suit powered down, and he plummeted back to the portal, falling back through moments before Widow used the scepter to close it, blocking off the coming explosion in the process. The Avengers assembled at Stark Tower, taking the injured Loki into custody once more. Thor took possession of the Tesseract, using it to transport himself and Loki back to Asgard and at last bring his brother to justice. The Tesseract itself would be stored in Asgard's treasure room, among several other invaluable artifacts.

See also

• Hawkeye of Earth-616